When we left the young hero in Cry Pilot, he was able to fully pair with the semi-autonomous fighter ships called CAVs. Unknown to the rest of the corporate military, this was only able to be done with the help of one of his squadmates, a young woman named Ting who is secretly a technopath. Ting's ability to manipulate technology with her mind means that, while she is a great asset, she is also a dangerous one as many have been known to go crazy and wreak havoc in the world. But, along with Kaytu's own secrets of his past, he is determined to protect the young girl who he is starting to see as a sister.
In the final pages of the previous book, Kaytu was able to stop the new deadly threat that was overrunning human defenses with his new ability to blend so well with the fighter ships. Upon saving a base and demonstrating that ability, it opened up a new avenue for the defense force. The corporate military wants to create a squad of paired CAV pilots and get to the root of the lamprey source once and for all. Unfortunately, no matter how many tests they run on Kaytu, no one can figure out what makes him so special, and when Kaytu can't keep Ting from acting out any longer, the military suddenly finds themselves with a slew of newly paired CAV pilots champing at the bit to take the fight to the deadly enemy.
In Burn Cycle, Kaytu finds himself pulled in many directions. On one side, he works to keep Ting's secret, while on another, he works to train his squad and the other newly-minted CAV pilots. Joining these struggles is his own internal fight to get over his past and become a true soldier who is willing to sacrifice his team members for the good of the mission, a trait that will be tested over and over again before this series ends.
Unfortunately for all involved, it is clear that something is pushing the lamprey threat harder and faster than before. The number of lampreys attacking human cities is increasing, and if their specialized branch of the military can't find the source of the lampreys and bring it to an end, the result could be a completely devastated mankind. To make matters worse, there seems to be evidence that the lampreys are guided by an intelligence and aren't just the random reactivation of old military tech like the other external threats the military has been trained to handle. Could the lampreys be of extra-terrestrial origin? Could they be guided by an enemy corporation? Or could the source of the lampreys be something else all together?
In reviewing the first book, I compared the feel of it to Starship Troopers, and that vibe continues on as the humans work to pool their resources and train to become a real threat to the enemy forces. That being said, Burn Cycle: A Cry Pilot Novel - Book 2 also gave off several twinges of Ender's Game vibes, especially when Kaytu works to train others in how to truly pilot a CAV. It resonates really well with Ender's training of Dragon Army, not to mention the feel of graduating from a lower level school to a higher level one, similar to when Ender goes to Command School. These parallels I get from Dane's works are a far cry from criticizing the author. On the contrary, being able to see the similarities between this story and those other, classic, sci-fi novels helps to draw me in and become more emotionally-invested in Kaytu's story. As I write this, I have Kill Orbit: A Cry Pilot Novel - Book 3 loaded on my Kindle and ready for me to dig in. I can't wait to see what happens after the exciting ending that Burn Cycle reached.
